If there is one sure thing that is guaranteed to propel the watch community into full chatter hyperdrive, it is an all new ‘Machine’ from Max Büssers’ MB&F studios, and today sees one of those occasions. At precisely 13.00 GMT the brand new MB&F Legacy Machine LM101 materialized through the brands’ social media platforms and almost immediately began appearing everywhere as journos and fans started to share this new MB&F experience with friends and followers.
MB&F Legacy Machine LM101
The fuss is of course well justified. The new MB&F Legacy Machine 101 is not only another jawdroppingly stunning timepiece from this house of horlogical wizardry, indeed it is also a hugely important milestone for Max Büsser, as within his new creation beats the very first fully in-house designed and conceived movement bearing the MB&F name.
MB&F Legacy Machine LM101 – The Perception of Time
Any MB&F Machine is an assault on ones’ perception of what a timepiece is and can be, and once again, the new piece is as inventive and unrestrained as its predecessors. Almost. Because at only 40mm and sub (just) €50,000 price tag, the LM 101 becomes a much more accessible proposition, in terms of price and wearability.
MB&F Legacy Machine LM101
Beneath its virtually invisible domed sapphire the dial of LM 101 really comes to life in a beautifully executed three dimensional fanfair. Its ancillary dials appear to float above the sunray finished movement plate and, suspended in the centre of the dial between two gracefully arcing bridges is the LM 101s’ Tour de Force; the large, slowly oscillating balance wheel with only four evenly spaced calibrating screws and escapement wheel, which dominates this miniature mechanical landscape.
MB&F Legacy Machine LM101 – A Spatial Experience
Time here almost takes a second stage to the hypnotic rhythm of the balance wheel yet is still captured with stunning effect on a lustrous translucent white dial which quite literally shines and reflects the elements around it, thanks to multiple applications of lacquer using an old process known as lacque tendue. Blued gold hands against roman numerals and a delicate gold rim around the perimeter of the dial creates a pleasant contrast, and with a hidden ‘pillar’ mounting system beneath the dial it seemingly hovers unattached just above the movement plate. A second, similarly appointed dial features the 45-hour reserve de marche at the 6 o’clock position.
MB&F Legacy Machine LM101
With Maximilian Büsser nothing happens without good reason, and for inspiration for the Legacy Machine 101 he looked back to a period in history, some time before the advent of electrically powered tools and production methods, towards the love, skill and pure attention to detail which went into the making of fine pocket watches of a hundred years ago. To quote the company, Legacy Machine 101 serves to ‘capture the essence’ of traditional watchmaking and timekeeping, and thanks to Büssers’ fascination with these traditions it is no surprise that LM 101 can be considered as a successful tribute.
MB&F Legacy Machine LM101
Calling on the services of old Friend and legend of contemporary watchmaking Kari Voutilainen to apply his magic touch to the finished calibre, recalling the skills of those craftsmen who would toil patiently over a small piece of metal, transforming its’ otherwise functional but cold and unemotive personality into a tiny (and often destined to be forever hidden) work of art whose brush strokes could be measured in the contrasting hues and grain of polished or brushed steel and gold mixed with sprinklings of gleaming ruby red.
MB&F Legacy Machine LM101 – Friends in High Places…
The involvement of Kari Voutilainen in the creation of LM 101 was to ensure that, as the inspiration came from the practices of traditional watchmaking, the manner in how these old skills would be realised in a modern setting would remain historically acurate, and so LM 101 boasts components which have been sympathetically recreated, positioned and minutely finished in the style of the makers of the period pocket watch. With a gently inwardly domed crystal, his exquisite finishing work can be appreciated through the caseback.
MB&F Legacy Machine LM101 – Caliber
Available in red or white gold the MB&F Legacy Machine LM101 is an expression of horlogical purity and free thinking in its design, and whereas it is symbolically important to MB&F with its very own in house calibre, it also is important to potential clients because with a price in the region of €50,000 it means that for a wider audience than before, an MB&F timepiece is not the impossible aspiration it used to be.
